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Sunday, October 1, 2017

31 Days of Halloween 2017: Beyond the Gates

[31 Days of Halloween 2017: BEYOND THE GATES is now available on various home video formats.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Imagine JUMANJI
as a low budget eighties horror movie, and you have a fairly good idea what to
expect from BEYOND THE GATES. Two estranged
brothers – the successful Gordon (Graham Skipper) and ne’er do well John (Chase
Williamson) – reunite after the death of their father to settle his affairs. In
particular, there’s the matter of the video store dad owned and all the movies
contained therein. Left behind in the store’s back room: a strange board/VHS
game that sucks the brothers into a netherworld where their choices result in
people dying. And once the game has begun, quitting is not an option.

Director Jackson Stewart, who co-wrote the screenplay with
Stephen Scarlata, is obviously working with a low budget here, but that’s fine.
He clearly knew what his limitations would be, and doesn’t try to stage
anything he can’t pull off satisfactorily. Besides, capturing that eighties
aesthetic doesn’t really require millions of dollars. Just plenty of fog,
colored lighting, latex, and slime.

It helps that the film has a solid cast of veteran character
actors and “B” players. Aside from the two leads playing the brothers, Brea
Grant is likeable in a typical throwaway love interest role as Margot, Gordon’s
girlfriend, and it’s nice to see horror icon Barbara Crampton as hostess of the
VHS game.

The overall vibe of BEYOND
THE GATES is in the ballpark of Charles Band’s output from Empire Pictures
before he made the shift to direct to video cheese with Full Moon Productions. That
may seem like an arbitrary distinction to the casual viewer, but fans of 80s
low budget horror will get the difference. This is closer in tone and quality
to something like DOLLS than it is
to PUPPETMASTER. No doubt Stewart
wanted to reach the level of FROM BEYOND,
but doesn’t quite get there, but that’s okay. Given the resources he had to
work with, one can’t really hold that against him. If you’re an 80s horror fan,
it’s certainly worth rolling the dice. 2 ½ out of 4 stars.